ACE

[ballies]

(pirate noises)

Comments

[selfimmolation]

I was kind of in the lawless area of the island, so maybe I'm not a good example.

[ lightly because she is clearly Offended on his behalf but also yeah kids work. why wouldn't they. ]

[ballies]

[ labour laws!!!! ]

Maybe not. There’s pretty strict rules about it where I’m from, mostly to some kids from being exploited for cheap labour. [ … ] Not that it works all of the time.

[selfimmolation]

Well, at least they're trying, right?

[ just gonna... glide past... the backstory stuff and move on.... ]

[ballies]

[ jiiiiiii. ]

Yeah, which sounds like more than whatever was or wasn't happening where you're from.

[selfimmolation]

Mostly kids'll work if they're poor and need the money, I guess. Or just... beg and steal.

[ s h r u g s ]

[ballies]

Well, yeah. That's a given. It still happens where I'm from, in some places.

But that's why there's laws in place in the majority of countries -- to support families so the kids don't have to work. Or to protect kids that don't have a family until they find a replacement or are legally old enough to take care of themselves.

[ sigh ]

The system isn't perfect, but like you said: they're trying at least.

[selfimmolation]

Yeah, the World Government doesn't have any kind of system like that, so most islands kind of decide what they do by themselves. Some villages are nicer to orphans and some aren't.

[ eats his snaccie ... it is almost gone... tragedy ]

[ballies]

[ they fell into the politics sauce-- well. tama fell, and dragged ace down with her i guess, and no shopping was done. ]

So it's like a roulette of island policies, and sucks to be you if the place you were born has nothing for you.

[ hmmm ]

There's probably a pretzel stall around here somewhere, by the way.

[selfimmolation]

Sure, something like that.

[ it's more like sometimes villages are nice and take care of kids and sometimes they aren't, let's not go there. she is freaked out about hunting in a forest and that is actually the least terrible part of his childhood. he grins at the mention of pretzels ]

Oh, seriously? Let's stop there!

[ballies]

[ still the hit or miss principle. but hey-- food. ]

Sure-- you've gone through what you got earlier pretty fast. [ pacify with food tactics-- go. ]

[selfimmolation]

We stopped for a while. [ so clearly it's not his fault there wasn't a lot of food? ]

[ballies]

Yeah, yeah. My tangent. [ she's not stopping him from buying like seven pretzels. ]

[selfimmolation]

[ he is buying ......... all the pretzels. but he does offer one to tama after ]

It's fine, it's fine. I keep forgetting people get a little weirded out when I talk about stuff. [ "a little" ]

[ballies]

[ all of them...


she will accept a pretzel. and actually, hold on, i'm a*ntie a*n-ing it up in here and saying they have pots of cheese sauce, which she's going to nab. ]

It drives it home we're all from very, very different places.

[selfimmolation]

[ with his mouth full: ]

Yeah, no kidding.

[ballies]

[ by the power vested in me, i'm saying they're somewhere with clothing racks now. so tama can be rummaging through them. ]

How did they even find us all?

[selfimmolation]

That... is a great question.

[ eats pretzel and ignores clothes. this is her job ]

[ballies]

[ diligently does her task. there a lot of options here. ]

Yeah. It’s not like they just scanned one world and picked at random. This is multiple worlds, and people who knows each other too?

It’s strange.

[selfimmolation]

People who don't know each other, too. I'd never met Robin, but she's on my brother's crew.

[ so many factors wow... what could it mean... nom nom ]

[ballies]

[ i’m glad he’s having a good time with the entire pretzel store. ]

So that’s just a tenuous link, rather than me and Ryuki getting brought here, or Will and Nico…

[ ugggh. ] They couldn’t even keep it consistent? How am I meant to spot a pattern like this?

[selfimmolation]

Maybe there isn't a pattern? It could be they just grabbed people at random and you guys were nearby enough for it to grab you both.

[ maybe... rpers... are worse ]

[ballies]

[ maybe we just throw darts until we find a seasonable blorbo to torment… ]

… Maybe? Still hard not to wonder how they found that many places to grab people from though. As far as I was concerned there was my world and nothing else until a couple of weeks ago.

[ we don’t talk about naix’s moksha theory. ]

[selfimmolation]

Same here, but maybe some worlds just... know more about that stuff? No one in the city seems surprised about different worlds.

[ballies]

[ this is enough to give someone a headache, honestly. she just bumps her head on the clothes rack with a sigh ]

It’d be nice if someone could explain it. The how, I don’t need to know the who, why and when. They manage to take people from different times as well, which is… a lot to wrap your head around.

[selfimmolation]

... Right. [ munch munch as he looks over some clothes opposite Tama ] Apparently, Argalia said he was dead before coming here as well.